Art Shows

Art Shows
I spent time at two different art shows, the biggest and best being the juried Bellevue ArtFair. Got some ideas for framing, displays, and more. Wish I had time to pitch a tent and do a show, but having a three-year old, I'll just have to put one more item in the "When My Child Goes to School" list.

Productivity
This week, the temperature in my area reached 107 degrees (official temp Redmond, WA), which was the highest I've ever experienced and I believe the highest recorded here. Seattle reached a record-breaking 102/103. My productivity as well as everyone else's nosedived as everyone in the area sought air conditioned public places for a few days.

Today felt more like summer in the Pacific NW. I was able to work more on content for a new website I'm creating with a coding-genius and friend, Anne Trent. Also practiced a bit more on Roman capitals.

Prehistoric Artworks

A site you don't think of when you think of art: National Geographic. Yet, here are two great art stories from them:

1. Prehistoric Hand Prints
After analyzing handprints in prehistoric cave paintings, they've discovered that many of them are done by women. Indicating that many of the actual paintings are probably also done by women, which isn't what was commonly taught. The older theory being men coming down and painting hunting figures as part of a religious ritual.

2. North America's Oldest Art
A 13,000-year-old mammoth bone etched with a figure of a mammoth.

Calligraphy: Is it Outsider Art?

Christopher Calderhead, a leading calligrapher and editor of Letter Arts Review recently posted a very accessible image-heavy lecture on Calligraphy: Is it Outsider Art?

In it, Calderhead examines how calligraphy is and is not integrated into the larger art community.

Calligraphy: Art or Craft?
One of the frequent discussions I heard in calligraphy circles revolves around this question. Calderhead graphs how he views this, giving calligraphy 3-prongs: fine art, craft, and graphic design. In my mind, I've always combined craft and graphic design, but I can see why he's made them distinct. However, I like how he points out how calligraphy is simultaneously many things, which is how I view it.

While the word, craft, often has some derogatory tones, as in "just a craft", I think of calligraphy in terms of William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement. To me, craft often rises to cultural high points, equally worthy of fine art in both time and money. When I'm addressing envelopes, this is the level I strive for. Ditto for graphic designs I do like logos and book titles.

But to say calligraphy is only a craft leaves out many pieces which hang well on the wall, which are fine art, and can compete with other fine art categories. For instance, the pieces that I've done for the CR Gallery, my illuminations, and some of my card images.

So, I found Christopher's take on the art vs. craft question interesting as well as his general take on engaging the greater art field.

Draft for Angela Rockett -- future altar piece

Draft for Angela Rockett -- future altar piece
Originally uploaded by shellyinseattle

When fellow artist Angela Rockett asked if I could collaborate on an upcoming altar piece, I knew I wanted to push everything else aside to do it.

Firstly, I only had to spend some hours to get a good enough draft, not weeks to get the final result.
Second, I get to be surprised at the end with the final result, seeing what some with Angela's artistic talent will do with my piece makes me very curious to see it. Just like a present!

Here's the draft, which displays some of my working habits, such as using a Westwind calligraphy practice pad for layout and spacing. Also, just trying to play around with tweaks to the same words even in the working draft I sent Angela. Earlier, I had sent her a very rough draft to see how she liked various lettering choices, so this current draft shows a very narrow variation.

The hand I used is a modern variation of Gothic called Fraktur, used more in Germany than in the States. This particular Fraktur is from Friedrich Neugebauer's The Mystic Art of Written Forms. It's a hand I taught myself for another project I did for Angela, the graphics for the ER Gallery show, Out of Darkness, Into Light.